[RL - A refreshing jog - Konoha Gates]

Just as Gai had promised, he went to the gates one lovely early morn. Today, he and some of his dear friends would go for a jog a few times around the village, to appreciate the incoming season and to celebrate the fact that he was no longer a sea creature.

Those who go to see him at the gates will find him stretching vigorously, making loud "Hup! Hup!" sounds as he warmed up.

On the morning that he had agreed to go for a run around Konoha with the green-clad taijutsu user, Gaara left early after writing a note to his girlfriend, who was still asleep in bed, and then he made his way over to the front gates of the Leaf Village. When he arrived at the site, he saw Guy working out lightly, though very boisterously, and a small smile of admiration touched his lips; the sand wielder believed he would be able to increase his taijutsu aptitude if he trained with the energetic man.

"Guy. Good morning." Gaara greeted calmly as he unloaded the gourd from his shoulder and set it upon the ground next to the gates; of course, he wouldn't be jogging with that heavy item on his back, but he had brought it along for the training session afterward.

Frost arrived in a season fashion of course. The air was chilled, as it seemed to gather to one spot outside of the gates in a circular motion, and what also seemed to be some flurries in there as well.

The elf himself appeared within the center of the winds and as he did, they died down.

As soon as the wind did. Frost scolled over to Gai and Gaara, wearing his sunglasses. He figured getting in shape before he trained with Haku might be a good idea. Now, it was just a matter if he should cheat or not now.

"Gaara-kun! Jack! How wonderful that you two could join me! And I must say you've an impressive entrance," Gai said, his last remark directed at Jack Frost.

"Not much is 'up' at the moment, besides our spirits! And how high they are, for passion is in the air and in our hearts, is it not? Now then..."

With that, Gai pulled a map of the village from within his vest and unrolled it for them - just in case his guests, who probably weren't very familiar with the town layout, needed a visual aid. "We'll be jogging around the village itself! No limit to the amount of laps we'll do - whatever it is you can handle, we shall do! And then we'll go out and get something to eat - a merry brunch we'll have amongst friends! So, are you ready?"

When Jack made his presence known, the sand wielder was pleased to see his friend and took a moment to greet him as well, making small talk for a short while, as he was admittedly fond of the blue-haired elf.

Gaara briefly glanced over the map - even though he had been in the village a number of times before, Konoha was about the same size as Suna, and it was rather easy to get lost, so he would prefer not to be humiliated that way. After studying it for a few minutes, he nodded in agreement and voiced his reply, "Yes. Don't forget our sparring session, Guy. If we plan to eat, we cannot train right afterward."

"Thank you. I do try now." Frost replied back to Gai with a little chuckle, then gazed over to Gaara and smiled, as the elf stretched out his neck to look at the map of the village. Then grinning at the thought of free food. Frost made a mental note for later to prehaps pick up a map of the area from mother.

"Well, I'm ready to go now." Swinging his bent right arm to his left side.

"Now then, let us run! For the Springtime of Youth! For passion! For love!" At this point, fire seemed to be surrounding the exuberant Jounin. "As friends, may our hearts pound together in time with our feet! Let us run into this morn with our spirits all aflame! We will surround the village with a circle made of companionship and joy! Come now, for we shall jog!"

And with that, Gai began with a most enthusiastic run, a spring in his step befitting of one such as he.

And with that, the three men began their quest, Guy showing much more gusto than his companions, and it didn't take very long before he ran further ahead, leaving Jack and Gaara in the dust and wake of his energy.

"My physical endurance is rather lacking." The redhead told his friend after a short while, though he did feel somewhat relieved to not be the last person in line, and then he asked mildly, "What about you, Jack?"

"What do you mean?" He asked Jack with curiosity, wondering if the elf planned to do something - he did seem to be a bit mischievous at times, so it was certainly possible.

"It's fine, Guy..." the sand wielder replied quietly when Guy had slowed down to their pace, though he had to suppress the urge to release a rather heavy sigh when he began to feel a slight ache in his chest.

Frost didn't answer, instead he just kept running. He couldn't keep this up and not use magic.

So, without another moments thought, Frost, starting rapidly shooting ice from this fingers onto the ground just enough for two feet. As he did the area there was iced and instead of running he was now skating and shooting as his body stayed in the elongated position. "Catch me if you can!" Frost yelled out, followed by a high pitched playful laugh.

On the one hand, he has gone beyond what we have set out to do - a simple, friendly jog. But he is also training his own powers this way, and it certainly is also a challenge for us to keep up! VERY WELL!

"Come Gaara-kun! Let us show Jack that we can indeed catch him!" With a loud, determined huff, Gai began to run faster yet again.

Gaara was surprised by his friend's clever move, and he also initially winced when the green-clad taijutsu user shouted so loudly right next to him, but then a small smirk creased his lips as he quickly figured out what he could do himself.

"I'm sorry, Guy, but I must leave you here." The redhead told the man as he called upon his innate ability to create sand from the dirt on the ground, and within minutes, he was standing atop a sand platform and soaring through the skies.

Frost glanced back just for a second as he was curious about the others. He had turned this from a jog into a Naruto Kart racing or something of the sorts. The elf stared perplexed at Gaara. "I didn't know he could fly."

Well, least it made things more interesting as he gave a head nod and continued to swish and flick his hands and feet quickly.

Gai had to think fast, or else he would be left behind. And he could not let that happen.

"AHA!" Upon coming to his realization, the Jounin flipped high into the air. He reached into his leg warmers, undid a few snaps, and pulled a set of weight straps from within. When he landed, he dropped the weights, and tremors were caused despite the relatively short distance to fall. Dust clouds rose high into the air, and from them burst forth Maito Gai, now with nothing holding him back. Zooming along the path, he soon caught up with Jack and was running beside him. There was a great big toothy grin on his face as he revelled in the sheer thrill.

The loud crashing noises caused Gaara to turn his head back to see what had happened, and the sight was actually quite familiar to him, as he remembered the time when he and Lee fought against each other years ago, and the same weights that were tied to the boy's legs. Now, Guy was running much faster, practically flying down the path as he caught up to Jack's position very quickly, and the sand wielder decided to stay out of the path by veering his platform off to the side. Guy stayed in-between them and the three were running along in unison, although Gaara inwardly wondered if this was going to turn into some kind of competition - and to think it had started out so innocently, just as a friendly jog...

Frost was shocked. How did they catch up? He tried to utter that to Gaara and Gai but all that came out was nonsense.As Frost glanced over at both of them. Gai looked like he just had a shot of caffeine and Gaara;

Frost called out to him, "Looking cool there, Gaara." Frost flashed a phony smile his way.

However now Frost was intrigued to try and go even faster. But him himself didn't know if he even could.

At first, there was no reply or any sound at all, save for Gai's steady, determined breathing. Then while maintaining his pace, he flashed Gaara a thumbs up. "Of course! Now my blood and my spirit are really pumping! Ha ha!"

Gai's attention turned to Jack (though he also meant his address for Gaara as well). "So are you - and a most exhilarating one at that! Could there be a better way for three friends to strengthen the bonds of their friendship?!" He too laughed, a most hearty and hot-blooded laugh.

"Thank you, Jack." The sand wielder replied to his friend with a genuine smile, and then after surveying the unique ice skills for a few moments, he commented in earnest, "Your abilities are remarkable."

At Guy's question, Gaara tilted his head slightly to the side in a gesture of curiosity as he mused over the words, and when his light turquoise eyes flickered across his two companions, he thought this was certainly an interesting way for them all to bond. "I believe there are many different methods for people to strengthen their ties to others. This is certainly one of them. Jack. Guy. Which activity do each of you prefer the most?"

Somehow, Gai was indeed able to continue conversation despite the EXTREME jogging. He is Gai after all. Of course, simply running while he answered such a question would not suffice.

"I too enjoy...ice skating!" he began, leaping into the air and doing a triple spin.

"And just as we are now, running!" His next step was a great, leaping bound.

"Sparring! HUAAAH!" A flying kick that, for a moment, put him a few steps ahead of the others.

"Dancing!" Taking on a more elegant air, Gai somehow managed to turn high-speed ninja dashing into high-speed ninja prancing. His grace would have made a ballerina jealous. Or sick.

"Oh, but truly there are too many things to name! Whatever ignites the passion between friends, creates fond memories, reminds us that we all have kindred spirits who share the same flaming soul and will always be there to run alongside you or pick you up when you've fallen! That is what activity I prefer with my comrades!" At this point, great big tears were beginning to form in Gai's eyes.

A small smile of amusement formed over his lips at the two's enthusiastic answers; so this was how it felt to have close companions and relax when one wasn't too occupied with other important duties. Gaara took his responsibilities with the utmost serious intentions, and he was completely devoted to his position, but on the other hand, he was only sixteen and still young enough to enjoy life, a concept that he wasn't all too familiar with at this current point.

"I don't know how to ice-skate." He admitted to his friends without inhibition - there was, after all, no chance of getting snow in the desert, so how was he even able to go skating? Unless he traveled over to one of the villages with that kind of suitable environment... but he didn't have a whole lot of leisure time to do things in Suna, let alone wander over to another place.

Dancing was another area that Gaara had no knowledge about, although he did see other people his own age parttaking in that activity before, and idly wondered if perhaps Matsuri liked to dance... would she be willing to teach him? Hmm...

As Frost turned the corner sharp he noticed there was ice ahead. Did they go around that fast. Amazing, really.

Frost smiled over to Gai nodding in agreement. Couldn't argue that now.

Then looking over to Gaara he frowned. That's right, desert boy. "Well, maybe you'll get lucky one of these days and it will snow in the desert." Frost shouted to him, followed by a rather large smirk on Jack's face.

"A stroke of fortunate that certainly would be!" Gai shouted. He too then noticed that they were approaching the beginning of Jack's ice ring. "So we've already run a lap have we? My goodness how time zips by when one is zipping along with precious friends!"

"I say when winter comes, we should have another run such as this one, only upon ice! Yes, we should have a grand 'jog on ice' as it were, ha ha ha ha! Why, we should get together and do this on all sorts of different terrains! Truly would it test our endurance while strengthening our friendship! What say you both?"

"Hmm. Yes." Gaara agreed, feeling his smile widen a bit at his friends' enthusiastic behavior toward the event, though part of him wished he could express himself in that same manner; still, many years of suppressing emotions made it a difficult process.

"Running over ice?" The redhead blinked at the suggestion and pondered on how that would work - he didn't have very much experience with that particular kind of terrain, so he would have to dely on the advice of Jack and Guy. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

"My mistake in lexicon, Gaara-kun! I meant that figuratively, as in we could go ice skating!"

Realizing what Jack meant, Gai appeared intrigued. "Of course! You have it in your power to create winter wonders! Perhaps you could give the gift of snow to Suna sometime! What a wonderful surprise!"

The Jounin took note of how much they had run. Though he made a habit of running far more laps than what they had done thus far, this was meant to be a means of exhilarating bonding, not a training exercise. Not to mention that Jack and Gaara didn't quite have his stamina.

"Perhaps another day though, my friends - for I think now would be a perfect time for us to finish our friendly jog with a scrumptious meal."

Deciding that sounded like a good plan, the three of them ceased their jogging/skating/sand gliding and headed over to a nearby restaurant. There they talked, they laughed, Gai told manly stories; it was a perfect way to end the day. When the time came for them to go their separate ways, there were tears - at least on Gai's part. Getting together again would definitely be something he would look forward to again and again and again.